


Rocks Fall

by Quicksilver_ink



Category: Suikoden III
Genre: Angst, Community: fic_promptly, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-26
Updated: 2012-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-29 08:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1003441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quicksilver_ink/pseuds/Quicksilver_ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone dies. Sasarai tries to pretend otherwise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rocks Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Suzume's prompt in fic_promptly: "Sasarai, and so he lives on longer and longer, after all his friends are gone."

Dios died first.

 It was to be expected -- the man was already middle-aged when they'd first met -- but no amount of expectation muted the pain in Sasarai's breast when he saw his old friend's body laid out in state, looking frail and ghostly white, like the color had washed out with his spirit.

 Sasarai locked himself in his rooms for a week. When Nash and Franz finally bullied him into emerging, he still felt as pale as Dios's corpse.

 

* * *

 

Albert was next.

 “I regret this,” Sasarai said, pulling off his glove and raising his right hand.

 “So you've said,” Albert Silverberg replied in neutral, polite tones. His mouth twisted in dark humor as he added, “But I'm fairly certain I regret it more.”

 Sasarai lowered his hand. “If you'd rather go to the headsman...”

 “I'd rather die in brocade than sackcloth,” the Silverberg replied frankly. “Public execution, shaved of my hair and dignity? Hardly an appropriate end for a member of the noble house of Silverberg.” The proud set of his shoulders fell slightly. “And then there's Caesar's weak constitution. I can't let him disgrace the family name by fainting in public – he never could stand the sight of blood, you know.” He sneered, disdain so solid it was transparent.

 “I know,” Sasarai replied, a memory of the younger brother, crimson-splashed and bellowing commands, flickered across his mind's eye. “I'll make sure he knows it was swift and painless.”

 Albert swallowed. “Thank you,” he said thickly.

 A small, small twist of power, and Sasarai's evening chess companion collapsed to the floor, a small pebble lodged in his heart. Sasarai knelt beside the sprawled body and closed the staring eyes with his bare right hand. The eyelids were warm under his trembling fingertips.

 

* * *

 

Sasarai made sure to be the diplomat sent to Budehuc to renew the treaty with the Grasslands and Zexen. It shocked him to see how different everyone looked – their faces all sallower, or rounder, depending on their fortunes and their health. Even fresh-faced, innocent Thomas looked older, although that was probably only because Cecile had talked him into growing a mustache. Caesar Silverberg looked older, too, and refused to speak with him outside of the negotiations.

 Only Chris and Hugo looked reassuringly like themselves, their eyes and faces as bright as Sasarai remembered. He sought them out frequently outside of the meetings. Chris seemed to find his familiar face a reassurance as well, as she was cordial and kept up her side of the conversation with no hesitation. Her strategist stood silently by during these interactions, no doubt trying to gauge Harmonia's political intentions. Hugo's easy warmth more than made up for _his_ strategist's obvious hostility.

 The Ducks organized the celebration after they'd signed the treaty – binding all three nations to open trade and non-aggression for the rest of Thomas's natural life.

 Drinking heavily watered wine and trying to learn the unfamiliar tune and words to a Karayan victory song from Hugo, Sasarai realized with some surprise that he hadn't enjoyed himself so much since the last time he'd seen everyone, at the end of the Fire Bringer War.

 

* * *

 

He attended the late Chief Lucia's funeral the next year. Karayan funeral customs meant there was no still corpse to haunt his memories, so it was easier to pretend that the woman was still the sharp-eyed warrior he had met in Dunan, and that she'd merely gone away. But Sasarai couldn't stop staring at Hugo.

 "Oh, this?" Hugo waved his bare right hand cheerfully. "I'm surprised you hadn't heard. I passed the Rune on to Kaylir when she took over as Chief, last year."

 "But you'll die!" Sasarai blurted out, feeling horror sweep over him at the sacrilege. Hugo had been chosen like Sasarai and the rest, elevated to their shared higher calling and honor. How could he just throw it away the Rune's blessing like that?

 Hugo shrugged. "Everyone does eventually. I'll return to the earth. And this way..." he turned, and Sasarai saw he was looking at the new Chief. "This way my daughter can stand at my pyre, instead of me at hers."

 "I understand," Sasarai said, although he didn't.

 He took up correspondence with Chris Lightfellow and the seer Leknaat when he returned home, knowing neither of them had children.

 

* * *

 

Geddoe's men and women died far away in a wartorn land, their deaths and Geddoe's survival written in terse code as almost an afterthought to the report. Sasarai could do no more than pen abbreviated condolences in the margins of the scribe-written orders recalling the other Runebearer to Crystal Valley, and sent them back by the same messenger bird within the hour. He couldn't even spare them five minutes of mourning as he ran to the Imperial Physician's office, his mind already running over his arguments for sending doctors to stop the epidemic in Le Buque, despite the territory's third-class status.

 Through his great rank and his refusal to give in to the hostile and indifferent, Le Buque had doctors and medicine within the month. The tertiary cases had been all saved, and even most of the secondary cases – the second group of people to fall ill.

 Franz and Iku had been in the first wave.

 

* * *

 

No one died for several years, at least no one that he heard of, and he heard quite a lot. Thomas wrote often, talking about his family and Budehuc's denizens with equal fondness. Sasarai had to keep a list to remember which of the many names were actually Thomas's children. Apple wrote – once – to tell him that Caesar's fifth child and third daughter had been born and christened Alberta, and that the strategist had two grandchildren as well. He knew she was writing her history of Mathiu Silverberg, so to spare her already-overworked hands he chose not to renew their correspondence, sending a brief note of thanks for the news instead of a longer letter.

 From the empire's network of informants he learned that Roland and Nei had a son; that Jeane and a Vikki (he wasn't sure which one) had been sighted in Kobold lands in southern Toran. He wasn't particularly surprised when, a year later, the Kobolds had established their own nation-state, headed by a she-Kobold rumored to have found the lost Beast Rune from Dunan. He meant to visit Apple in Toran someday, or Thomas at Budehuc, but there never seemed to be time. There was the senate to argue with, reforms to push through, temple dedicates to train, ceremonies to perform... and of course, the monthly ritual where he communed with his Rune to find echos of other Runebearers.

 He assigned Geddoe as his new (and very silent) bodyguard and general agent to serve with Nash. This lasted about a year, until Geddoe punched Nash in the face for a reason neither of them would tell Sasarai, and demanded to be reassigned. The man disappeared a year later, on a mission in the Badlands, but Sasarai was confident that the grim-faced veteran was still alive.

 Chris Lightfellow's letters, for months vacuously polite, grew warmer after the Le Buque epidemic, although she studiously avoided talking about anything pertaining to Zexen politics or any of the knights save Louis. Reading her letter as she talked complained insincerely about how her former squire had named his son after her, Sasarai felt now that he could honestly count the Knight and fellow Runebearer among his friends. She visited Thomas often, and encouraged him to do so when he could.

 The vampire Sierra visited regularly, teasing the still-mortal Nash as his hair went grey.

 Then one day, Nash didn't arrive for duty. Sasarai never saw Sierra again either.

 

* * *

 

“Thank you for coming,” Chris Lightfellow said quietly as he moved to her side at the front of the great chapel. She was still beautiful and young, even with sorrow painting her features pale and pained. She did not turn to look at him, nor at the black-clad men and women filtered in behind them. “I know Harmonia needs you in the capital, with the senate making noises at the Temple..”

 “It's no great difficulty. I was sorry to hear of Sir...” he broke off, realizing with sudden horror that the warrior beside him was blinking back tears. He retreated to the safety of formality. “Harmonia mourns with Zexen. All nations have lost a great hero, and so Harmonia offers her condolences... as do I.”

 “Thank you,” she said again, then leaned forward, her lips brushing the corpse's, before she turned and retreated to the pews. Sasarai stared after her, his sorrow for his friend doubling as he realized what she'd been keeping out of her letters.

 After the service, he tried to set things right. “I'm so sorry, Chris. I didn't realize you two were-”

 She cut him off quickly. “We weren't. I'd have told you if we had been.” She closed her eyes and swallowed. “I decided it would be best not to get involved with someone, given the circumstances.” Her right hand tightened, the blue circles of the Rune shimmering and sparkling even in the shadowy church. “I thought it would make it easier when... this day came.”

 “I understand.” Sasarai meant it, thinking of poor Sierra. “It's the wisest path for people like us.”

 Chris looked at him ruefully. “No, it's not. Today, my regrets weigh heavier than the sorrows.” She sighed. “I need to go speak to his family now. Thank you for coming yourself – it means more than I can express properly right now.” She clapped him on the shoulder as she walked past him. “Take care, my friend.”

 

* * *

 

Sasarai kept his correspondence with Chris, although it became more sporadic once she left Zexen, “to figure out what I ought to do with this blasted hand ornament,” as she'd taken to calling her Rune now that their correspondence was through whatever means she could find rather than secure diplomatic channels. He invited her to Harmonia several times, but she declined every time, and he stopped asking. Jeane and Vikki were seen again, on various continents, always along with some great social upheaval. Sasarai joked in one of his letters to Chris that if they were spotted anywhere in Harmonia, he'd order whatever troops he was commanding to withdraw from the field immediately.

 He heard no more about Caesar from anyone, including the spy network, which had plenty to say about his scions. That was probably just as well – the man had earned a peaceful retirement. The same went for Apple, who was probably still straining her hands writing up a biography. Thomas still wrote, mostly speaking of Budehuc's people as if they were his immediate family – that had to be it, because it was impossible for Thomas to have grandchildren, let alone great-grand-children. Sasarai had not been back to Budehuc since the treaty negotiations, but he could still conjure Thomas's young, earnest face from memory.

 

* * *

 

“Chaos take this blasted war,” Sasarai grumbled, rubbing his stiff back as he balanced on an unsteady folding stool. He'd never gotten the hang of sleeping on the ground. Worse, he hadn't had a decent cup of tea all month. The summer rains had been unusually heavy, and the damp had gotten into the army's stores of flour and tea both. Sasarai still wasn't sure which was the worse disaster.

 He liked marching on the Grasslands again even less than forgoing tea and sleeping on the ground, but it was Most Holy Hikusaak's decree that they pounce the moment the treaty ended, and True Earth needed to be there in case the Karayan chief used True Fire against the Harmonian forces. And there were rumors that the young half-blood Safir at the head of the army had an unusually powerful lightning rune...

 “I've got a letter for you, Your Holiness,” his eager new assistant – his third since the war had started, and he could never remember their names – informed him, eyes shining with pride at being able to serve the Bishop-General. “It's in plain, unless that's part of the code? It's awfully strange. And the bird it was on was a rock dove, like the rebels are using.”

 “In plain text? From a rebel bird?” Sasarai sat up so quickly he nearly overturned the rickety camp table. “Let me see it immediately! Please!”

 His eyes scanned the brief message, and his heart constricted. _Please remember your letter 3 years ago. I'm here, with V and J also. Forgive me, friend._ It was signed not with a name or initial, but a glyph – three concentric rings.

 “What is it?” his assistant wanted to know.

“It's a demand for surrender,” Sasarai said shortly, the corners of his eyes aching. She had sent that, but still called him friend. What could have possessed her to do such a thing? And didn't she understand she was asking him to choose between his country – his duty – _Hikusaak –_ and their friendship? They'd avoided all of that when she'd been a soldier as well. How could she do such a thing _now,_ when they were all- he cut that thought short. “Do you still have the bird?”

His assistant was understandably floored. “I... surrender! How-- how do you get all that from just that?”

“Do you still have the bird the message came on?” Sasarai repeated.

“Y-yes.. .but...”

“Bring it here. Immediately.”

As the assistant ran off to fetch the bird, Sasarai turned the thin strip of paper over, and wrote his response – “ _I remember, but you ask much. Why are you here?_ ”

 

* * *

 

The bird was back at dusk. Sasarai strained to read Chris's response in the flickering gas lamp in his tent. “ _I promised Thomas._ ”

 Sasarai couldn't breathe for several minutes, the name piercing him through the heart. 

Finally, he wrote his response - a single word, and the image of his Rune. He brought the bird to the tent flaps and released it. The soft slap of its wings faded as the bird disappeared into the violet twilight sky.


End file.
